


flowers & fortunes

by Accidie



Series: the beginnings [7]
Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Description of a dead animal, Fluff, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Canon, Young Arthur Morgan, Young Dutch van der Linde, Young Hosea Matthews, this is just pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24682888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accidie/pseuds/Accidie
Summary: In which a not so successful hunt still pays of well in the end when young Arthur brings home something special for Hosea.
Relationships: Arthur Morgan & Dutch van der Linde, Hosea Matthews & Arthur Morgan, Hosea Matthews & Arthur Morgan & Dutch van der Linde, Hosea Matthews/Dutch van der Linde
Series: the beginnings [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1817620
Comments: 21
Kudos: 182





	flowers & fortunes

He had known Dutch for five years, and in those years, Dutch had only gone out hunting on his own twice. He preferred to buy his meat from the butcher or fish. He had followed Hosea out hunting once, and since then they had agreed on never repeating that again. A truly horrible experience for both of them. 

But they were running low on supplies, and since Hosea had sprained his ankle during a shoot-out with the law, he couldn’t go out hunting by himself. 

So, against his better judgement, he convinced Dutch to go out and get them something to eat. 

And Dutch had, as always when doing something he would find boring on his own, insisted on taking Arthur with him. This time Hosea didn’t let it bother him. The boy needed to learn how to hunt, after all. And while he didn’t have much hopes about what they would bring back, especially since neither of them were good hunters and both tended to get caught up in other business as soon as Hosea let them out of sight, he at least hoped they would be disciplined enough to make an attempt. Dutch was always eager to teach the boy something, and Arthur was eager to prove his worth. 

The sun is at its peak when they return. Arthur on his grey mare, who he had, in lack of imagination, named Horsea. Dutch had found that _hilarious_. He rides in last on his black stallion, the Emperor. An incredibly cheesy name, but better than Erebus which was the first name Dutch considered. 

When the horses are hitched, both of them walk towards Hosea. Dutch with long, excited steps, beaming as he always did when seeing Hosea again, even if they only spent a few hours at most apart. 

He seemed unusually happy, though. Often that meant he had some embarrassing story about Arthur to share. 

“The hunt did well, I hope?” Hosea asks as soon as they are close. 

“Very well, my dear friend,” Dutch says. “Arthur, why don’t you show Hosea what you got for him?” 

“You got me something?” Hosea asks. Arthur nods, and that’s when Hosea notices what Arthur is holding in his reached-out hand. 

Dutch looks like he’s trying not to laugh, barely being able to contain his sniggers. 

“Flowers?” 

Arthur nods again, and looks down, cheeks red. “I mean, you’re always picking ‘em,” Arthur says shyly. 

It’s ginseng he picks, for his lungs. Not that he tells Arthur that. “That’s very kind of you Arthur,” he says instead. Takes a second look at them now when he’s holding them himself, and Christ, are those- 

“Calypso orchids?” 

How did the kid find a whole bouquet of them? 

“Do you like ‘em?” Arthur asks. 

“God, Arthur, these are worth a fortune!” Hosea says. “How on earth did you find so many?” 

Arthur shrugs. “I didn’t know that, I just found them pretty.” 

“A fortune?” Dutch asks, smile wiped away from his face, now instead curious. “Who would pay so much for flowers?” 

“Collectors in town,” Hosea answers. “Not that you need to worry about that, I won't sell these, not when Arthur has worked so hard to pick them for me. Now, did you get anything else on that hunt?” 

Dutch and Arthur exchange a look. 

“Arthur did get a rabbit,” Dutch says, smiling again. Hosea didn’t like that. 

“Where is this rabbit then?” 

Arthur opens his satchel, _and Hosea really needs to have another talk about him about hygiene and where to store dead animals_ , and brings it out. 

The rabbit is- 

Well, there is no nice word of it. It’s barely recognizable as an animal anymore. 

“Did you use a shotgun on this poor thing?” 

Arthur nods. “Dutch said I could pick whatever gun I wanted.” 

Sometimes Hosea suspects that Dutch fucks up the chores he doesn’t want to do on purpose. Not even Dutch was so bad at hunting that he didn’t know a shotgun would be completely inappropriate for shooting a goddamn rabbit. 

“...Did I pick wrong?” Arthur asks. He sounds worried. After two years of him and Dutch trying to build up the boy’s shattered self-esteem, Arthur still seemed to get nervous over the smallest changes in their mood. 

“Well, you should use something of lower caliber next time,” Hosea says. Seeing Arthur’s dejected look, he quickly adds, “But we can have some use for it.” 

“We can?” 

“Why don’t you practice sewing on it? See if you can piece together this poor thing. It’s about time you learnt how to close wounds.” 

Arthur nods and scurries away towards the medical supplies. 

“Are you done laughing at the poor boy?” Hosea says, turning towards Dutch, who’s wearing a big grin on his face. 

“He is adorable, Hosea, you would be laughing too if you had seen him there, he was so excited to bring back something nice for you,” Dutch grasps his shoulder and turns his gaze towards Arthur, who already has started to sew, his expression one of deep concentration. 

It the beginning, it had been difficult to get him to do anything. Constantly going between being angry and being sad, and if anything demanded the slightest bit of focus, he would abandon the task immediately. 

Hosea had first thought he was lazy. Turned out he just lacked the confidence to do anything at all, and was scared that they would beat him if he failed, just as his father had done so many times. 

They got much softer on him after that and it paid off well in the end. Now he was ready to do anything they asked. It was worrying sometimes. 

To think that there was a time Hosea thought he never would be able to love anyone as much as he loved Dutch. He loved them differently, of course, Arthur as a son and Dutch as something else, and still with that difference in mind, he couldn’t deny that Arthur was dearer to him. He knows it because he can imagine a future without Dutch, painful as that might be, but he could never leave Arthur behind. 

The boy had grown so much in the past months, both as a person and in height. Soon he would be taller than Hosea. Perhaps even taller than Dutch. That would make him very happy, to see the look on Dutch face when he no longer was the tallest one in their trio after Dutch had made so many jokes about Hosea's size.

Still too lean, though, but he was getting broader. 

“He’s turning into quite the man, isn’t he?” Dutch says, his smile now much softer. “Our boy.” 

“He is.” 

“...Are you really going to keep the flowers?” 

“Of course not,” Hosea scoffs. “Who do you take me for?” 

A growing boy needs good food. And for the flowers, they would get a lot. Perhaps some new boots too, for Arthur. Hosea had seen him looking at a pair in the window of the tailors just the other day. 


End file.
